Agriculture, Gender, AFRICA:Smallholder scoops Female Food Hero award

DES MOINES, Iowa, USA - Winner of the Oxfam International Female Food Hero in Nigeria award and feted as farming role model at the recent Borlaug Dialogue in Iowa, Nigeria's Susan Godwin is an example of the potential of smallholders.

When her crop failed four years ago, Godwin went back to the classroom to learn new farming methods, how to add value to her product and how to draw up a business plan to access credit.

The next year, her yam and groundnut yield doubled.

Today, her family is food and financially secure, a claim that not many smallholder farmers in her village in central Nigeria can make.

Godwin is also an employer with three staff who share the profits of her peanut shelling and processing business. /IPS
(END//2012)